Free to Serve! I Corinthians 9:15-27

Free to Serve!

I Corinthians 9:15-27

Introduction:  Our town is filling up with visitors this time of the year.  If you are visiting the area, we are glad you are here! (Good for the local economy too!)  Someone who recently had traveled to New Jersey commented that they were surprised, and even a little insulted, that in NJ you are not allowed to pump your own gasoline. Full service only, it’s the law!  Most states have a very different view, most states, in most gas stations, it’s “self service only”!  That seems to be a brand of “christianity” that is growing in popularity today as well: “self service Christianity.” What is in it for me? Though it may be human to ask that question, biblical Christianity turns this whole discussion on its head. It’s not about me and what God is going to do for me, it is about Him, it’s about God’s glory and His mission in the world. In view of what God has done for us in Christ, are we willing to give Him our best, and to be fully engaged in the mission He has entrusted to us, that is, to know Him, and to make Him known? 

Big Idea: We have been set free by God’s grace, free to express our love for Him as we give our best in seeking to fulfill our part in His mission.

I. Free to obey God’s Call: Compelled to serve, mission is a sacred responsibility, and a blessed privilege (15-18)!

¹⁵ But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.  ¹⁶ For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!  ¹⁷ For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.  ¹⁸ What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.”

       When you start a reading with the word “but” you need to remember the context in which it falls. Recall from recent weeks that Paul has been talking about being free in Christ, and the willingness of the mature believer to give up the exercise of certain freedoms that might be an impediment to a weaker brother. The argument here is a little different, here the concern is over gaining a hearing for the gospel, and doing whatever he could do to identify with and reach people of various backgrounds with the Gospel.  He has just made the case that those who minister the word have the right to expect their needs to be met by the church.  Paul’s “boast” so to speak was that when he came and ministered in a region, like Corinth, he preached and evangelized and made disciples without expecting or accepting sustenance from the new churches being planted.  Like a missionary church planter he would come in and establish a church, either supported by gifts from other churches, or, as he did when he initially arrived in Corinth, by working as a tent-maker.

            Note that Paul did not view ministry as a “job,” it was a calling. He had a burden to share Christ with as many as possible, to urge men and women to be reconciled with God. It wasn’t a path he had chosen, he did not dream about being a missionary or a pastor in later life. Remember Paul’s opening words in the letter to the Galatians, “Paul, an apostle- not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead…” He was called and this calling came from God, his gifts were bestowed by the Spirit, and he had no choice but to preach. He says here in I Corinthians 9:16, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”  
       I preached a few times while in Bible college even though I was such an introvert, and I did not relish the idea of public speaking.  It wasn’t a career path I would have chosen, but I felt compelled to make myself available for the ministry. When I was in seminary my first year I preached most every weekend in a church that was without a pastor. They had a small evening service and were happy to have a student preacher come. It was not that I felt confident about speaking by then, I felt like I had to do it. It was a privilege. The preparation and the preaching was a good experience for me that confirmed God’s calling on my life. Slowly I realized that despite my weakness God could use me. This year is 30 years since my first position as a youth pastor in 1985. God calls each of us to discover and use our spiritual gifts for the edification of the body and evangelization of the lost.

       You might wonder about your place in God’s mission. My place is right here you might think, right in this pew, I sit here every week! I sing the songs and put money in the offering!  Well, good for you. But God has formed you into the person you are, with a unique story that is a part of God’s story. He has gifted you, and molded you through the experiences that you have passed through in life for this moment. Are you listening? Are you willing? You might think, l can’t do this. Well, join the club. It is not about our weakness but about His power.  We have been set free by God’s grace, free to express our love for Him as we give our best in seeking to fulfill our part in His mission.

II. Free to prioritize God’s mission: Commitment to mission means surrendering our freedom for the sake of the lost (19-23).

¹⁹ For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.  ²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.  ²¹ To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.  ²² To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.  ²³ I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

            Paul understood the doctrine of grace.  9:19 summarizes the main idea, and then it is restated in v.23. Paul is free, absolutely free in Christ. Even so, he has chosen to be a slave of all for the sake of the Gospel, that he might win more to Christ. Four times through the section he repeats his motivation, “…that I might win more of them…”  Paul was motivated by a sense of urgency in the mission that he was on. More than his own comfort or security or sensitivities he wanted to do everything possible to share the gospel with as many as possible. He felt compelled to preach Jesus, and to urge men and women to be reconciled to God. So he stayed “flexible,” and he met them where they were at.  It is a matter of fact, that after we come to faith, gradually we have fewer contacts with people outside the church.  We have to be intentional in cultivating those relationships because it won’t happen by itself. Family, neighbors, co-workers, people we rub shoulders with in the community, all of these are headed toward eternity, either in Christ, or in darkness. The task is urgent!

            V.20, to the Jews, to those “under the Law,” he became as a Jew, as one under the Law. We see examples of Paul choosing not to be an offense, to identify with his audience. Typically, when there was a Jewish synagogue in a town that Paul arrived in, it was there that he first went. Why? They were the guardians of the scriptures, the race through whom God brought Messiah Jesus into the world. They were Paul’s brothers, the nation from which his mother and father and all his relations had come. We read in Acts 16:3,

³ Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.”

This was after the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 when it was determined that gentiles need not be circumcised!  Why did Paul do this?  “Because of the Jews who were in those places…” He did not want Timothy, whose mother was a Jew and whose father was Greek, to be an offense to those that they were seeking to reach.  It was a concession for the sake of others, to avoid putting a stumbling block in the way of faith. Later in Acts we see that Paul in Jerusalem, reporting to the believing Jewish leaders of the church there what God was doing among the gentiles. And what does Paul do? We read in Acts 21:19-24,

¹⁹ After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.  ²⁰ And when they heard it, they glorified God. And they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law,  ²¹ and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs.  ²² What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.  ²³ Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow;  ²⁴ take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law…

Paul went and participated in a Jewish rite in order to show the Jews he respected their traditions and customs.  After all Jesus had said that He didn’t come to do away with the Law but to fulfill the Law!  But when Paul went to Mars Hill in Athens in Acts 17, he did not rely on Jewish tradition to point men to the God of the Bible. Speaking to those pagan philosophers he spoke of God as creator, sustainer, and coming judge…

¹⁹ And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?  ²⁰ For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean."  ²¹ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.  ²² So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.  ²³ For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.  ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,  ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  ²⁶ And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,  ²⁷ that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,  ²⁸ for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "' For we are indeed his offspring.'  ²⁹ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.  ³⁰ The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,  ³¹ because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." 

What was so different?  Why no reference to Moses and the prophets and the fulfillment of Scripture, when in the synagogues he would reason from the Scriptures, proving that Jesus was the messiah? Paul became all things to all men so that by all means he might win some.  Certainly appeal to Moses and the prophets made sense to a Jewish audience, but less so to those Greek philosophers!  We need to meet people where they are. All truth is God’s truth, so we listen and look for a window that we can invite them to look through to see the Creator, the God who is their only hope. For Paul, in Athens, it was the altar to an unknown God.  Then we share the Bible, since “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ…” We have been set free by God’s grace, free to express our love for Him as we give our best in seeking to fulfill our part in His mission.

III. Free to Strive for excellence: As an athlete strives to win the race, we can strive for maturity, giving our best for the Lord (24-27).

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.  ²⁵ Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.  ²⁶ So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.  ²⁷ But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

        Paul uses the imagery of athletics, which would have resonated well with the Corinthians.  The Isthmian Games which were held every two years in the region of Corinth were second only to the Olympics in importance in the ancient world. Then, as now, the contestants trained hard for the competition. I have a younger brother who took up running at about the age of 40. Today he is competing in the NJ State Triathlon. He has since run several marathons and triathlons, and has done two “half-ironmans.” He is now training for a full iron man competition in the fall, 2 mile swim, 100+ mile bike ride, and 26 mile run, all together! The same day! One after another! If I added together all the swimming and running and biking in my entire life I might get close to those distances, but probably not!  Those of you who have run races like that know you don’t just “show up” the day of the race. You train. Diligently. Rigorously. You give it your best.  You work hard.  I think one of the young mothers in our church is planning to run another half marathon this year. You don’t just “show up” on race day, you give it your all. It takes real commitment. We’re not talking just about athletics here. Paul is using this imagery to teach us.

       How do we “train hard” for the Christian life and mission? Make use of the means of grace God has given us. Be in the Word, read it daily, spend time in prayer.  Come to Sunday School and join a small group. Iron sharpens iron. We need to benefit from the gifts of others and listen, they need to benefit from the gifts God has given you. The Christian life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. And it’s not enough to just show up. Meetings like this are a time to recharge and to be equipped, but as soon as you pass out of this building you are on the mission field, and you are on assignment.  God deserves our best, our commitment. He gave us the best, perfect love demonstrated on a hill called Calvary. He gave His only begotten Son. So, in Him…

What is God saying to me in this passage? We have been set free by God’s grace, free to express our love for Him as we give our best in seeking to fulfill our part in His mission.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? This Wednesday we are up to one of the shortest psalms in the Bible, Psalm 117. It’s the last in a series of psalms that begin and/or end with the phrase, “Praise the Lord!” [I.e., “Hallelujah!”]. This Psalm begins with parallel statements, “Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!”  That word “nations,” goyim, “gentiles.” The psalm is calling for the whole world to know and to worship the God of Israel. That is Paul’s desire, Paul’s heart, here in I Corinthians: that all the nations praise Him, i.e. that the God of the Bible be exalted, that He be glorified.

       Because Paul loved God he was willing to give himself, to step out in faith, to give up his own rights, so that he could become "all things to all men, so that but all means” some would be saved. Each of us is called to be a missionary where God has placed us, we are all called to be witnesses. We talked recently about the idea of hiring an outreach director and if that is God’s will and God’s time, that’s great, we’ll see. But we can’t imagine that we are hiring someone to do the outreach for us. That is our job. Every one of us. Ephesians 4 says “…he gave some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” That is telling us that every member, according to God’s plan, is a minister and a witness.  Some teach and preach and equip, but every one of us, as we go out into the world, in our families and neighborhoods and workplaces, is called to be a witness. The church isn’t only our Sunday gathering or our Wednesday night meeting, or even our small groups. We are the church. And we have a mission to carry out.

       VBS is coming up. Is there a child in your extended family or neighborhood that you can invite to Vacation Bible School?  What a great way for kids to hear the gospel and what a great way to introduce a family to our church!  Is there someone in your family or neighborhood that doesn’t attend church, but who needs the Lord?   Why not invite them next Sunday to the Adult class at 9 am, and then to stay for church? God has us here, together, because there is work to do. May we prove to be a lighthouse of His grace and truth. “Self-service only” might be a good idea at the gas station, but that is not biblical Christianity, and it is not our church!  Keep that in mind this week and be sensitive to the opportunities the Lord sets before you.   AMEN.